Sunday, October 05, 2003

By Kim Crow, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

This month's batch of reviews has a definite mommy vibe.

"Babyville" by Jane Green (Broadway Books, $21)

Jane Green is quickly becoming one of the top-selling authors in the burgeoning chicklit market, and with "Babyville," it's easy to understand her popularity.

She introduces us to three London women whose lives gradually become more and more intertwined. Julia is a successful TV producer, but after months of failing to conceive, she feels her life falling apart. She takes a job in New York to escape her only real failure as an adult.

Her friend, Samantha, is head over heels in love with her husband and expects her new baby to be the icing on the cake. But the overwhelming exhaustion of having a baby in the house and the inevitable strains it puts on a relationship has her reconsidering the pros of her marriage.

Maeve, by comparison, is a free-wheeling career girl, a love 'em and leave 'em type, whose one-night affair leaves her, quite unexpectedly, in the family way.

At times hilarious, other times touchingly tender and melancholy, "Babyville" isn't really about babies, but about three thirtysomethings whose lives are turned inside-out as they leave the last bastions of girlhood behind them.

"Diary of a Mad Mom-to-Be" by Laura Wolf (Delta Fiction, $10.95)

Amy Thomas, heroine of Wolf's "Diary of a Mad Bride," is back. Now know as Amy Thomas-Stewart, she's happily married and working as a public relations agent for a "no-talent" agency, as she puts it.

When she gets pregnant, she's assigned to do the PR for a soap star who's written a best seller decrying motherhood and all it stands for. If her agency knows Amy is pregnant, she'll be fired, losing any chance she had for landing her dream job at the magazine her agency's parent company owns.

Amy hilariously tries to hide her pregnancy, with all its incipient side effects such as flatulence and frequent bathroom trips. Her husband, Stephen, is not exactly supportive, and her friends, too, have seemingly deserted her in her hours of need.

Despite a too-pat ending, "Diary of Mad-Mom-to-Be" is an entertaining read, although so breezy and light the whole concoction will float right out of your head hours after you put the book down.

"The Thin Pink Line" by Lauren Baratz-Logsted (Red Dress Ink, $21.95)

On the other end of the "light" spectrum is "The Thin Pink Line." Jane Taylor wants to be a mother so bad that she fakes it, lying to everyone she knows about her alleged pregnancy.

No, it isn't a sort of hysterical pregnancy such as those experienced by women married to King Henry VIII (although, if not getting pregnant meant your head was coming off, I guess I'd be pretty hysterical, too). It's more the case of wanting some of the special attention that follows expectant mothers around.

Out of this somewhat reprehensible premise, an engaging story emerges. When Jane's at-home pregnancy test doesn't come out the way she hoped, she fakes it, with the help of a pink marker. When her boyfriend finds out she's faking and moves out, Jane is left without a way to get pregnant.

She keeps going, though, inventing an ob-gyn, investing in some baggy clothing and a prosthetic tummy. When it all becomes too much too bear and she's tempted to come clean, she's offered a book contract about her farce and her dream of becoming an author is within grasp. Will her "pregnancy" lose her a new romance and budding friendships?

It's easy to dislike Jane at first, self-absorbed and completely shameless about lying and cheating her way around town. But the reader is soon rather endeared to such a single-minded creature, and it's impossible to put down this debut novel without knowing how Jane is going to end this charade at after her ninth month.

"Perfect Together" by Lisa Plumley (Zebra Books, $6.50)

Charming, bubbly and personable, "Perfect Together" is the sweetest read of this latest bunch. Jake Jarvis is a sportscaster on a local television news show. Hoping to boost his profile as well as the stations, his bosses insist he take part of the network's "Dream Date" reality programming. Jake's a single father and agrees mostly because he could lose his job if he doesn't.

Marley Madison is a former child star and wild-child media darling for her years on a popular "Dallas"-type evening soap. The show has ended, and with it, Marley's career.

Her "people" convince her to invent an alter ego, someone in complete contrast to herself, and audition for "Dream Date." If she can convince the world that's she's "Carley," shy, diffident and possessor of dark secrets, then casting agents can be convinced, too.

Predictably, Jake and Carley are paired on the show, and that's where the fun begins. And the love, too, but how can "Carley" and Jake have a future when Carley doesn't really even exist? Blessed with two lovable leads and the too-sweet-for-words Noah Jarvis (Jake's son), "Perfect Together" will have readers rooting for the pair from the get-go.

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